V*a  \'5C, 


-io-hrv 


THE 


MISSIONARY  CHARACTER 

AND 

OBLIGATION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


By  Key.  John  K.  Allen. 


I have  been  asked  to  speak  for  a limited  time  upon 
the  Missionary  Character  and  Obligations  of  the 
Church.  I do  not  need  to  show  you  how  large  the 
theme  is  to  which  I am  to  direct  your  attention  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  it  will  be  plain  to  all  that  I cannot 
say  all  nor  even  a large  part  of  what  belongs  to  such 
a subject  as  this. 

Let  me  direct  your  thoughts  to  two  or  three  points 
which  most  naturally  present  themselves  when  we 
consider  this  theme. 

And  in  the  first  place  the  Missionary  Character  and 
Obligation  of  the  Church  is  indicated  in  its  very 
charter.  We  must  always  start  here.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  first  Lord’s  Day,  Jesus  stood  in  the  midst 
of  the  disciples,  and  having  given  them  his  saluta- 
tion, said:  “As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so 
send  I you.”  This  was  not  addressed  to  all  the  apos- 
tles nor  to  the  apostles  alone.  One  of  the  eleven  was 
absent,  and  others  were  there  besides  the  apostles. 
The  commission  was  given  to  the  Christian  society 
and  not  to  any  special  order  of  men. 

Later,  and  near  the  time  of  the  ascension,  He  meets 
the  disciples  by  appointment,  from  the  other  side  the 
cross  and  the  grave,  upon  a mountain  in  Galilee. 


2 


MISSIONARY  CHARACTER  AST) 


There  are  not  only  the  twelve,  but  five  hundred 
brethren  present  at  once.  To  them  He  declares  the 
extent,  method  and  duration  of  His  sovereignty,  and 
gives  the  command  which  has  never  been  recalled: 
“ Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  nations.” 
It  is  the  fulness  of  the  times.  All  things  are  now 
ready,  and  the  seed  which  has  been  ripening  in  the 
little  garden  spot  of  Israel  is  now  to  be  scattered 
throughout  the  world.  He  claims  all  peoples  and 
all  time  for  His  own.  Now  here  are  the  orders  which 
Christ  has  laid  upon  His  Church.  His  command  is 
to  go — to  go  to  all  nations — and  to  keep  on  going  un- 
til the  end  of  the  world.  A church  which  is  not  a 
missionary  is  a disloyal  church,  and  is  false  to  its 
charter.  A charter  includes  two  things — privileges, 
and  duties  as  a consequent.  The  privileges  of  the 
Church  are  the  presence  of  Christ  with  His  power  in 
it.  “ All  authority  has  been  given  Me  in  heaven  and 
on  earth.”  Its  duties  spring  from  that.  “ Go  ye, 
therefore , and  disciple,  for  I am  with  you  all  the 
days.”  If  a church  will  not  obey  these  commands, 
there  will  be  lacking  the  tokens  of  Christ’s  presence 
with  it.  A church  without  the  missionary  spirit 
must  be  a declining  one.  Even  history  shows  that 
the  missionary  church  is  the  strong,  living  and  grow- 
ing one. 

The  early  disciples  did  not  attempt  to  gainsay  this 
command  of  their  Lord.  They  made  no  effort  to 
show  Him  the  dismal  and  hopeless  outlook.  Loyalty 
would  demand  that  they  should  attempt  the  impossi- 
ble. Loyalty  demands  it  of  us  to-day.  The  outlook 
is  not  so  entirely  discouraging  as  it  was  when  those 
few  men  were  set  down  in  the  centre  of  a moral  Sa- 
hara and  told  to  make  it  blossom  as  the  rose.  In  our 
day  there  are  lines  of  light  along  the  edges  of  the 
darkest  continents,  like  that  intolerable  radiance 
which  you  have  seen  burnishing  the  edges  of  a great, 


OBLIGATION'  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


gloomy  continent  of  cloud  hanging  in  mid-heaven. 
But  still  to-day  it  is  only  the  minority  which  has 
heard  of  Christ.  Two  out  of  every  three  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth  have  never  seen  a B ble.  But 
here  are  written  in  the  charter  of  the  Church  the  un- 
changing words  of  Jesus:  “Go,  and  make  disciples  of 
all  nations.”  Whether  we  go  to  succeed  or  fail,  loy- 
alty demands  that  we  go.  President  Mark  Hopkins, 
at  the  recent  meeting  of  the  American  Board,  spoke 
of  the  answer  of  some  Russian  soldiers  when  told  they 
were  marching  to  certain  death:  “ That’s  none  of  our 
business.”  It  is  the  answer  of  the  Church  when  men 
speak  of  obstacles. 

Opportunities  and  advantages  for  fulfilling  this 
command  are  afforded  us  to-day  such  as  the  world 
has  never  before  had.  It  need  not  be  said  that  our 
boasted  inventions  cannot  of  themselves  usher  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  electric  light  cannot  dissipate 
any  moral  darkness.  The  telegraph  can  in  the  twin- 
kling of  an  eye  bring  to  a man  the  news  of  the  loss  of 
what  is  dearest  to  him  in  life.  But  when  he  interro- 
gates it  for  help  and  sympathy  he  finds  it  dumb  and 
dead.  We  girdle  the  earth  with  railroads  and  steam- 
ship lines,  but  neither  the  fleetest  ship  nor  the  swift- 
est train  can  carry  a man  away  from  himself — from 
his  own  bad  heart — nor  across  the  border  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Yet  in  all  these  things  there  is 
something  of  which  we  may  take  advantage.  The 
world  is  made  one  neighborhood,  and  men  are  made 
a brotherhood.  They  make  distinct  the  appeal  of 
heathendom  for  help,  because  our  nearness  thrusts 
its  want  in  our  faces.  They  make  it  easier  to  carry 
to  the  nations  the  bread  of  life.  They  are  the  wings 
on  which  the  mighty  Gospel  may  fly  abroad.  Peo- 
ples to  whom  the  apostles  could  only  have  gone  with 
strenuous  efforts,  spurred  on  by  invincible  zeal,  are 
easy  of  access  to  the  Church  of  tnis  century.  If  the 


4 


MISSIONARY  CHARACTER  AND 


men  of  the  past  could  plead  some  excuse  for  the  dif- 
ficulties in  the  way,  much  less  have  we.  In  no  age 
of  the  Church  has  this  command  of  Jesus  to  go  aud 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature  been  more  im- 
perative and  absolute  than  it  is  at  this  hour. 

Our  time  compels  us  to  leave  this  ground  of  the 
Church’s  missionary  obligations  and  look  at  another. 
The  truth  which  Jesus  entrusts  to  the  messengers  so 
sent  forth  deepens  their  responsibility.  It  is  uDlike 
any  other  which  men  can  possibly  carry.  Its  aim  is 
nothing  less  than  the  complete  and  eternal  salvation 
of  those  to  whom  it  comes.  That  work  it  professes 
to  be  able  to  do. 

If  the  Church  really  believes  it  has  anything  as  im- 
portant as  that  to  say,  its  sense  of  obligation  ought 
to  be  awful  and  overwhelming.  It  was  this  belief 
which  gave  stimulus  and  an  unquenchable  zeal  to  the 
early  disciples.  They  had  tarried  in  company  with 
the  Master  and  knew  all  His  story.  When  the  Spirit 
descended  there  were  no  new  facts  to  be  added  to  the 
stock  they  possessed.  But  how  it  all  became  trans- 
figured at  Pentecost.  Their  story  had  run  up  the 
scale  and  had  become  a gospel.  The  tale  they  could 
tell  would  bring  salvation.  The  hundred  striking  in- 
cidents they  could  narrate  were  not  merely  interest- 
ing, but  no  man  could  hear  them  without  being  chal- 
lenged to  make  an  awful  decision  whose  consequences 
would  reach  into  eternity.  What  they  had  to  say 
distanced  in  importance  any  possible  message  which 
could  be  entrusted  to  men.  Up  to  this  hour,  with 
their  story  of  a perfect  life,  they  had  been  like  men 
who  see  a star  in  the  sky  and  do  not  know  it  is  a 
world.  There  it  is,  a beautiful  bright  point  in  the 
heavens  winking  recognition  down  to  the  earth,  giv- 
ing glory  to  the  night.  Bat  now  a man  comes  with 
his  telescope  and  spectroscope.  And  then  they  find 
that  that  thing  whose  light  pierces  the  darkness  is  a 


OBLIGATION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


5 


great  world,  vastly  larger  than  this  ball  of  earth  on 
which  they  stand ; they  find  out  concerning  its  atmo- 
sphere and  composition,  and  never  again  as  they  look 
up  at  it  can  they  think  of  it  as  only  a needle  of  light 
piercing  its  way  through  the  gloom.  So  marvellous 
a change  came  over  the  disciples  when  Pentecost 
came,  and  their  sweet,  beautiful  story  unfolded  its 
real  great  meanings  to  them.  It  was  not  now  a mere 
narrative,  it  was  gospel.  And  the  question  was  not 
now  how  to  get  courage  enough  to  say  it — the  ques- 
tion was  how  to  keep  still,  even  though  the  cost  of 
speaking  might  be  imprisonment  and  death.  O,  it 
must  be  said — it  pressed  up  to  their  lips  to  be  said, 
and  they  cried:  “ We  cannot  but  speak  of  the  things 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard..”  They  must  say  it 
or  die — must  say  it  if  they  died.  If  the  Church  is 
possessed  with  this  truth,  that  it  has  the  Gospel,  the 
message  of  salvation  to  carry  to  the  world,  its  sense 
of  obligation  will  never  let  it  sleep.  Such  men  will 
have  their  feet  shod  with  the  readiness  of  the  Gospel 
of  peace.  Were  not  the  feet  of  the  missionary  Paul 
shod  in  that  way?  With  what  restless,  eager,  tireless 
feet  does  he  go  over  the  world ! He  goes  to  city  after 
city  and  province  after  province.  Now  he  is  climb- 
ing the  mountain  passes,  and  again  sailing  upon  the 
deep.  He  presses  north  among  the  half-barbarous 
people  of  Lystra,  and  again  encounters  the  philoso- 
phers on  the  Acropolis.  He  no  sooner  starts  a church 
in  one  place  than  his  eager,  yearning  heart  summons 
him  away.  He  visits  one  island,  and  gets  wrecked 
upon  another.  He  is  in  Antioch  and  Ephesus,  in 
Philippi  and  Corinth,  in  Athens  and  Rome.  This 
readiness  of  the  Gospel  is  the  shoes  he  wears.  They 
are  shoes  which  wax  not  old;  the  feet  which  wear 
them  are  restless  and  fleet  and  grow  not  weary,  and 
they  are  beautiful  upon  the  mountains.  As  the  mes- 
senger of  the  gods  was  said  to  have  winged  feet,  so 


6 


MISSIONARY  CHARACTER  AND 


does  this  messenger  of  God  seem  to  go  with  incredible 
swiftness  from  land  to  land  and  people  to  people.  If 
you  asked  him  the  reason  of  it  all,  he  would  tell  you 
he  had  the  Gospel  which  would  save  these  men ; they 
were  dyiDg  in  ignorance  and  darkness  and  a heavy 
responsibility  rested  upon  him  of  conveying  the  truth. 
He  looked  out  at  the  world  with  covetous  eyes;  he 
wanted  it  for  his  Master — he  wanted  to  save  these 
souls.  That  same  spirit  burns  in  every  true  mission- 
ary heart,  and  every  Christian  heart  ought  to  be  that. 
This  missionary  fire  made  John  Williams  cry:  ‘‘I 
cannot  stay  in  a single  island;  human  souls  are 
perishing  all  around.  I must  have  a ship  to  send  a 
messenger  to  other  islands  to  glide  the  heathen  to 
heaven.”  This  deep  conviction  in  the  heart  of  the 
Church  that  it  has  the  only  Gospel  ever  delivered  to 
the  world,  that  it  has  what  the  rest  of  the  world  does 
not  have,  and  which  it  must  have  or  die,  of  necessity 
throws  upon  it  the  heaviest  obligations. 

And  this  sense  of  responsibility  is  deepened  when 
we  remember  that  if  we  do  not  give  the  Gospel  to 
them  they  never  will  get  it.  This  duty  and  privilege 
has  been  devolved  upon  men — there  is  no  missionary 
but  man.  The  Lord  Jesus  never  preached  His  Gospel 
to  any  man.  For  forty  days  after  His  resurrection 
He  seemed  to  hover  on  the  borders  of  two  worlds, 
seeming  to  be  claimed  by  each,  now  in  sight  and  now 
out  of  it.  Put  there  is  no  evidence  that  in  those 
days  before  the  ascension,  when  perhaps  He  revisited 
unseen  some  of  the  scenes  of  His  labors  and  sorrows, 
He  preached  His  truth  to  any  soul ; not  at  the  house 
of  the  widow  in  Nain,  or  the  house  of  Ihe  woman 
who  loved  much  in  Magdala;  not  at  the  house  of  the 
publican  in  Jericho,  or  at  the  home  of  the  demoniac 
in  Gadara.  Even  after  His  ascension,  when  He  is 
going  to  claim  Saul  of  Tarsus  for  Himself,  from  out 
that  supernal  glory  which  smites  the  persecutor  to 


OBLIGATION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


7 


the  earth  on  the  outskirts  of  Damascus,  the  Gospel  is 
not  preached  by  the  heavenly  voice.  Let  him  go  into 
the  city  and  a man  shall  tell  him  what  he  must  do. 

- And  although  His  heart  broods  with  unutterable  love 
over  the  world  He  died  to  save,  when  has  He  broken 
the  heavens  and  come  to  preach  to  any  dying  soul  in 
any  land  in  any  time? 

And  this  mission  is  given  to  no  angel.  Once  they 
bent  on  quivering  wing  over  the  hills  of  Bethlehem 
and  broke  the  midnight  silence  with  their  song, while 
their  spokesman  cried:  “I  bring  you  good  tidings  of 
great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  the  people.”  Once 
they  cried  from  out  the  amazing  emptiness  of  the 
sepulchre:  “He  is  not  here,  He  is  risen;”  but  when 
since  then  has  an  angel  preached  of  the  advent  or 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus?  They  may  brood  over  the 
beggar  lying  full  of  sores  at  the  rich  man’s  gate,  and 
when  the  spirit  has  been  freed  from  the  rotting  robe 
of  the  flesh,  a convoy  of  them  may  bear  it  to  Abra- 
ham’s bosom ; but  they  cannot  tell  him,  lying  there 
in  that  torturing  garment  of  the  body,  the  message  of 
salvation.  There  is  joy  in  their  presence;  the  light 
from  the  face  of  God  is  reflected  in  their  faces,  when  one 
poor,  penitent  soul  drops  its  first  tear,  lifts  it  broken 
cry  for  forgiveness.  But  though  their  interest  is  so 
deep  they  may  not  carry  the  word  of  forgiveness. 
The  Son  of  Han  can  say  to  His  angels  go,  and  to 
others  come,  and  they  will  obey ; but  to  them  He  has 
not  said:  “ Go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gos- 
pel to  every  creature.”  Men  and  brethren,  let  us  be 
sure  of  this,  if  we  do  not  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  hea- 
then they  will  never  get,  it.  We  are  put  in  trust  of 
the  Gospel.  How  shall  they  hear  without  a preacher? 
Jesus  breaks  the  bread,  and  gives  it  to  His  disciples, 
and  the  disciples  give  it  to  the  multitude. 

Does  not  the  sense  of  our  obligation  deepen  as  we 
think  of  these  things?  An  awakened  Christian  con- 


8 


MISSIONARY  CHARACTER  AND 


sciousness  will  be  oppressed  with  the  need  of  the  whole 
world.  Macaulay  says  concerning  the  keen  sense  of 
wrong  which  characterized  Edmund  Burke,  that  “op- 
pression in  Bengal  was  to  him  the  same  thing  as  oppres- 
sion in  the  streets  of  London.  ” It  was  a rare  soul 
which  could  feel  that  wrong  was  as  really  and  awfully 
wrong  so  far  away  as  at  his  own  doorstep.  In  the 
new  life  which  Christianity  brings  to  men,  in  the 
lofty  outlook  it  gives  them,  it  strives  to  make  them 
feel  that  a soul  is  as  really  a soul,  that  it  is  as  really 
worth  saving,  and  that  its  sins  are  as  awful  if  it  live 
in  China  or  India  or  Japan,  as  if  it  lived  in  Philadel- 
phia or  New  York.  Carey  made  his  rude  map  of  the 
world,  and  as  he  pointed  his  customers  to  one  land 
after  another  and  said:  “That  is  pagan,”  and  “That 
is  pagan,  ” the  tears  would  steal  down  his  cheeks.  The 
heart  which  is  alive  will  feel  the  truth  of  the  hymn, 
and  hear  hoarse  voices  coming  from  where  the  winds 
blow  over  the  icy  mountains  of  Greenland,  and  weak 
voices  coming  from  the  enervating  atmosphere  of 
India,  and  its  dreams  by  night  will  be  haunted  by 
visions  of  men  who  cry:  “ Come  over  and  help  us.” 
There  are  other  things  which  I might  say  if  time 
allowed,  as,  for  instance,  that  we  owe  everything  to 
missionary  enterprise.  We  are  sinners  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. Our  ancestors,  but  a few  centuries  ago,  were 
sunken  in  all  the  degradation  we  now  find  in  the 
heathen  world.  The  ancient  Britons  were  wild  men 
who  wore  the  skins  of  wild  beasts.  The  ancient  Scots 
were  cannibals.  The  ancient  Saxons  delighted  in 
human  sacrifices,  and  the  Gauls  used  the  skulls  of 
their  enemies  as  drinking  cups  in  their  feasts.  That 
is  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  we  were  digged.  What 
we  are  we  owe  to  missionary  enterprise.  Is  there  not 
a new  obligation  in  this  fact?  Shall  we  keep  what  we 
have  and  share  it  with  none? 


OBLIGATION  OFjTHE  CHURCH. 


9 


“ Shall  we  whose  souls  are  lighted 
With  wisdom  from  on  high, 

Shall  we  to  men  benighted. 

The  lamp  of  life  deny  ?” 

How  wonderful  was  the  vision  which  swept  before 
the  mind  of  Jesus,  as  on  that  mountain  He  gave 
command  to  disciple  all  the  nations.  Never  did  the 
grandest  dream  of  any  conqueror  picture  anything  so 
tremendous  and  sublime.  Once  more  now  at  the 
end,  as  at  the  beginning,  He  saw  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  earth  and  the  glory  of  them,  and  again  a voice, 
not  this  time  a false  one,  said:  “All  these  will  I give 
thee.”  He  would  give  him  the  heathen  for  his  in- 
heritance, and  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth  for  his 
possession.  Jesus  is  sending  His  followers  out  to 
make  a universal  conquest  which  shall  never  be  re- 
versed. How  weak  He  seems,  this  man  so  recently 
crucified  as  a malefactor,  with  scars  still  upon  Him ! 
And  what  a picture  of  helplessless  that  little  crowd 
of  poor,  ignorant,  unarmed  disciples  is ! This,  the 
power  which  is  to  revolutionize  the  world  I We  can 
as  easily  imagine  those  men  turning  their  face  to  the 
North,  and  with  their  united  breath  blowing  back 
the  bitter  winds  which  sweep  down  upon  them  from 
over  the  snows  of  Lebanon.  We  could  as  easily  im- 
agine that  the  spring  breaking  out  from  the  rock  at 
the  feet  of  Jesus  should  be  copious  enough  to  assuage 
the  thirst  of  the  world.  As  we  picture  the  scene 
there  is  no  stopping  place  in  our  judgment  between 
the  widest  extremes — this  is  the  wildest  lunacy  or  ab- 
solute divinity.  Jesus  stands  upon  this  mountain  in 
Galilee  in  apparent  helplessness,  and  sends  out  His 
undisciplined  followers  to  take  captive  the  world. 
And  the  magnificence  of  the  conception  is  being 
equalled  by  the  grandeur  of  the  fulfillment.  Having 
been  lifted  up,  He  is  drawing  all  men  to  Him.  and  in 
Richter’s  words  He  is  the  one  who  “ being  the  holiest 
among  the  mighty,  the  mightiest  among  the  holy, 


10 


MISSIONARY  CHARACTER. 


lifted  with  His  pierced  hand  empires  off  their  hinges, 
and  turned  the  stream  of  centuries  out  of  its  channel, 
and  still  governs  the  ages.”  With  the  success  of 
centuries  behind  us,  we  hear  His  word  anew  to-day 
to  go  and  disciple  the  nations.  Every  time  we  pray 
the  prayer  He  taught  us  and  say  “thy  kingdom 
come;  thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  in  heaven,”  we 
hold  up  before  us  the  idea  of  a glorious  consumma- 
tion, and  the  truth  of  our  own  obligation.  He  has 
fulfilled  His  word  and  shall  fulfill  it — “Lot  I am  with 
you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.” 
Soon,  when  our  part  of  discipiing  the  nations  is 
done,  we  may  hope  to  stand  with  a multitude  of 
those  redeemed  from  every  land  and  hear  great 
voices  in  heaven,  which  shall  say,  “The  kingdom  of 
the  world  is  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord,  and  of 
His  Christ;  and  He  shall  reign  forever  and  ever.” 


